Substrate-triggering electrostatic discharge protection circuit for deep- submicron integrated circuits

摘要

A substrate-triggering ESD protection circuit is provided for use on a deep-submicron integrated circuit for ESD protection of the integrated circuit. The ESD protection circuit is incorporated between an input end and the internal circuit of the integrated circuit formed on a substrate. The ESD protection circuit utilizes a featured substrate- triggering operation to trigger the ESD-protection transistors formed in N-wells of the substrate into conducting state so as to bypass the ESD current to the ground. The ESD protection circuit allows a simplified semiconductor structure to fabricate, while nonetheless providing an increased level of ESD protection capability for the deep-submicron integrated circuit.